


Sealing the Deal

by MaddieFrickenClark



Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Adult Themes, Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - No Zombies, Engagement parties, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Hotel Room Sex, I'm trash for happy endings, Interracial love, Interracial relationships, Karaoke, M/M, Ofelia hates hotels, Practically only thing true to canon, Sex, Smut, Strand and Thomas are sweeties, Strand and Thomas get engaged, Swearing, Will add tags as I go, alcoholic Madison Clark, and they throw an engagement party, drunk people, feelings come out, ftwd au, gay couples, happy endings, i like my AU, interracial couples, interracial gay relationships, love is love, mentions of abuse, no one shoots their lovers in the head, pregnant Luciana, rich people have all the fun, screw the canon, sex scenes, that Alicia Ofelia and Chris babysit, they have adopted twins, who are cuties, zombie free au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 04:10:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10235579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieFrickenClark/pseuds/MaddieFrickenClark
Summary: Victor Strand and Thomas Abigail finally decide to get married, subsequently throwing a huge Engagement Party first. Maddie gets drunk, Travis is a sweetheart, Alicia, Chris, Ofelia, and Tori (my OC) let some feelings out, Luciana experiences morning sickness - at night, Nick is boyfriend goals, Strand gets almost as drunk as his best friend, Thomas is a sweetie with a Scottish accent, the twins are adorable, problematic, and definitely shouldn't be watching that on Netflix. FTWD AU, smut, fluff and hotel snuggles. They all deserve happiness.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, thanks for reading my story. I'm a huge Strand/Abigail fan (I love them almost as much as my OTP, Maddie/Travis) and they deserve so much better. No one should EVER have to shoot their lover in the head. This is set in my alternate universe, with my OCs, so ask away if there's any confusion or questions. Enjoy!

Chapter 1:

“So those are the five main types of political powers,” the teacher concluded as he tapped at the whiteboard with his pen. 

Alicia Clark averted her eyes from the clock and began to glance around the classroom. About half of her peers were making notes on what their teacher had written while the others were obvious watching YouTube and Netflix. She had finished summing up the key points herself and was now, rather impatiently, waiting for class to end. 

It wasn't as though she didn't like Politics class, she actually adored both it and her teacher, Mr Wood, but she did like what was planned for that evening even more. 

She was actually excited to be going home, damn, a hell of a lot had changed since she was a young girl. Back then she had spent the entire school day dreading the time when the clock read three and the bell sounded. She never wanted to go home, to get off that damn bus and find her mother in the kitchen, bottle in one hand, cigarette in the other. To find her mommy, the woman who was supposed to love her, passed out on the sofa, or worse, in an alcohol fuelled rage. The brunette shuddered at just the thought of all of the times her mom had lashed out at her and her brother, Nick constantly copping the brunt of it in order to protect his little sister. She remembered the bruises on his arms, the cuts, the scars, and all those black eyes he'd lied so much about. “I'm just really clumsy,” or, “it just happened in soccer practice.” That was also why she liked her neighbour, Susan, so much more than her own mom. Susan was a sweet little Asian lady who would sometimes look after Alicia and her brother while their mom was busy slowly killing herself. She was also the only person who openly seemed to care for Alicia, and, especially as a child, that meant so much to her.

Almost all of that had changed by now, though. Her dad, whom she later found out had spent a great deal of her formative years beating her mom, passed away, and her mother had moved on. She'd fallen for Travis Manawa, a Maori American divorced father. Alicia had ignored him at first, passing him off as a replacement for her dad, but soon enough she came to love him just as much, if not more, than his predecessor. He was a genuinely good man, despite, at the same time, being fucking crazy for putting up with her mother. He honestly seemed to care for both herself and her brother, as well as his own son, Chris, and with him around it finally felt as though she had a family.

“Hey ‘Licia did you catch what he said we had to write?” 

Her stepbrother’s voice shook her out of her thoughts, and she turned around to face him. He had tan brown skin, a lighter shade than that of his dad, his shoulder length black hair was tied up in a messy man bun, and a large smile filled most of his face. He obviously hadn't been listening, and the fact that both himself and her other friend, Tori, were eyeing the screen of Chris’ laptop seemed to prove it.

Alicia rolled her eyes, “seriously Chris, can't you ask Tori?”

The other girl grinned at her friend sheepishly. Tori was pretty, not conventionally, but in a crazy, artistic sort of way. She had shockingly bright blue curly hair, dark red lips, a septum piercing, and large glasses perched crookedly on end of her nose. Alicia had met the girl a couple of years earlier when she had transferred to Paul R. Williams High School at the start of grade nine. She'd been awkward and shy, and was still eternally grateful that the other girl had taken her under wing. They'd been friends since, and when Chris had also transferred to the same school after his mom had moved to DC for work, he'd also found his way into their little squad.

Tori motioned to the computer, on which ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ was playing with subtitles turned on. “Chris and I have been busy,” she replied with a laugh before she motioned down to the notepad meant for her notes. Alicia glanced over her stepbrother to see a messy, yet surprisingly good, sketch of Jacqueline Voorhees. The girl was a really good artist, which usually meant that she neglected all of her other work in favour of her art. “And I haven't been listening either.” 

Alicia grimaced, “you guys are terrible. Mr Wood was just explaining the types of power commonly found in politics, see look,” she pointed to the board. “Those are all the notes that you guys need to copy down.”

“But I can't read his writing to save my life,” Chris motioned to the cursive.

“Suck it up, Princess,” Alicia smiled. “And here, you can copy my notes.”

Tori tapped her pen against the tabletop, “oh and Alicia can you text Ofelia and tell her that I'm coming home with you tonight.”

The brunette nodded. She was honestly surprised that Tori was able to come along with them all tonight. Victor Strand, her mom’s best friend, was marrying his boyfriend of just under twelve years, and they'd all been invited to their engagement party. Tori had been invited as well, but her strict, religious parents seemed to be the last people to approve of their daughter going to a big, presumably wild, engagement party, especially considering that it was for a gay couple.

“How the hell did you convince them to let you go?” Chris asked curiously.

“They don't actually know yet, I'm going to get your dad to ring my mom and say that I'm sleeping over, no questions asked. No mentions of a party, or Strand and Thomas, or anything.” She twisted her fingers into her blue curls, one of her habits.

“Okay, but if we get caught she'll kill us, you know that right?”

Tori shrugged, “it's worth the risk.”

“Definitely,” Chris high-fived the girl.

“And Leesh, I'm going to have to borrow one of your dresses.”

The brunette nodded, “sure.” She scooped her iPhone out of her backpack and tapped at it rapidly, unlocking the phone, before she began texting her best friend.

“Tonight's gonna be amazing,” Chris beamed, half of the still unwritten notes long forgotten.

“I know, right? It's going to be the best.”

A subtle buzz directed all of their attention toward Alicia's phone. She peered at the screen, “it's just Ofelia. She says ‘great, I haven't seen Tori in ages, tell her that we have some catching up to do. Also, I'm picking up a dozen Krispy Kremes if any of you are interested.’”

Chris’ eyes widen, “hell yeah! I should have moved in with this family years ago.”

“Say thanks to her for me,” Tori smiled softly, her hand still absentmindedly working on her sketch.

“You can say it yourself, class finishes in fifteen minutes.”

X-X-X-X

“So, do you think we should take the offer from Mrs White, where we’ll make less money upfront, but more in the long run, or from Mr Watson who’s offering us much more right now?”

Victor Strand glanced affectionately at the other man who was standing beside him, talking. To admit the honest truth, the absolute best thing about being in a stable gay relationship was most definitely the fact that he and his partner could share business suits. The Scottish man was wearing one of Victor’s blazers, as well as a pair of his business slacks, and, begrudgingly, Strand decided that they looked better on him.

It was hard to believe that this was the man that he was marrying, let alone the fact that he was actually able to get married in the first place. He'd met Thomas Abigail around twelve years earlier, the initial circumstances of that meeting were rather questionable, as were some of his own actions, but that was all old news now. It wasn't everyday that the man you conned out of a fair sum of money was willing to ask if you wanted to become business partners. That was pretty much what had happened to Strand. Thomas had seen just how switched on and capable the other man was and had obviously decided that he'd be much more beneficial in business with him, than he would be behind bars on fraud charges. 

Their relationship had progressed pretty quickly after that. They'd gone from strictly business to something more reminiscent of pleasure pretty quickly. One night, after closing a big deal, they'd decided to go for drinks at a bar and after a few too many tequilas they'd definitely blurred the line defining them as ‘just friends’. Thomas had kissed him first, it was oddly spontaneous, especially for him, but Victor had kissed right back. Truthfully, he'd been glad that he hadn't been the only one noticing the sparks flying between the two of them. They'd spent that night in Strand’s hotel room, deciding the next day that it hadn't just been the booze talking and that they wanted this to be more than just a one night stand. Neither of them realised at first, but they'd both fallen in love.

Thomas' adoptive mother, Celia, had never liked him, but Strand hadn't cared. They made each other happy, and that was pretty much all that mattered. They'd initially lived mostly in Baja, Mexico, but business and land deals had meant that it was easier for them to move to Los Angeles. Victor had a house there, which they'd pretty quickly made into a home, and before long they'd decided that they wanted a family. 

That was where the twins had come in. Tiffany and Jonathan. Their mother had been a junkie, who'd overdosed when they were two, their father had never been in the picture, and they'd been in the care of the state since. When the couple had been approached by a social worker with the offer to adopt them, they'd jumped at the chance, and that was how they'd managed to actually start their own family. 

“Victor, were you listening to anything that I just said?”

Strand turned to look at his partner, brushing away his thoughts, and smiled. “I was listening, I promise,” he began in his baritone voice. “But I think you should just put your phone away and we can make a decent, executive decision tomorrow.”

“But, honestly, wouldn't it be beneficial to let them know as soon as possible?”

Victor stepped forward, rose an eyebrow at the other man, and expertly slipped the smartphone out of his boyfriend’s hand. “We’ve got an engagement party in about four hours, and we need to be at the hotel to check everything’s in place, as well as get ourselves and two five year old’s dressed. I think we’ve got our hands full today, without even thinking about rich old buyers.”

Thomas nodded and grabbed the other man’s hand in his, “you're probably right.”

“When am I ever wrong?”

“Can I have my phone back?”

“If you honestly think that those puppy dog eyes are going to help convince me even slightly to give it back, you're sadly mistaken.”

“But it always works on you when the twins do it.”

“That's the twins, when a forty something year old man does it, it’s nothing short of tragic.”

“You're terrible, Victor Strand.”

“I love you too, Thomas Abigail.” 

Thomas squeezed his boyfriend's hand and grinned, “we have ten minutes of peace and quiet left until school finishes and the twins come running out.”

“And we have to entertain a whole heap of people we don't even like.”

“It's not really up to us to entertain them though, there's lots of liquor, they'll get drunk and entertain themselves.”

“You have a lot of faith in our friends,” Strand peered at his iPhone before he glanced across the school yard. “Oh, babe, don't look now, it's Melissa Johansson. I think she's still fuming that we didn't invite her.”

“She's a bitch and I wasn't planning on spending my money on providing her with free drinks.”

Melissa was a fellow mother of a little girl in Tiffany and Jonathan’s class. She was one of those business moms, the type who wore Italian skirts and patent leather heels. She was the ‘Queen Bee’ of what Strand and Thomas dubbed the ‘Rich Business Bitches’. They despised the PTA moms, most of whom had befriended Victor and Thomas, which was mostly why they seemed to dislike the two men.

“Hello, Victor, Thomas,” she flashed a bleached white teeth filled smile and tapped her manicured fingernails against her Gucci purse. “I heard there's quite the party going on tonight, I was wondering if there was any way that my husband and I could come along. You know us rich people need to stick together.”

Victor peered at his fiancé and rose an eyebrow. She obviously had a hidden agenda, why the hell else would she be interested in attending the engagement party, but then again, they shouldn't really be creating enemies this early on in the school term.

“We could always make room for one more couple, right Tom?”

The other man shrugged and adjusted the cuffs on his suit sleeves, “I suppose so, and Cynthia can some along too, if she'd like.” He knew how desperate his daughter was to get in with the ‘in crowd’, and his partner seemed to think that money was the way to do that, so this party was practically the perfect opportunity to show off. 

Melissa beamed, “that sounds splendid, text me the details!” She handed them both a business card before she hurried off toward her little clique. 

“I wonder why she's so desperate to come?” Thomas queried as he straightened his fiancé’s tie, “and your tie looks horrendous.”

“Well thankfully I have you here to help me, and I know just as much as you do. I didn't even think Melissa liked us.” Strand paused, “but we are rich, attractive, and throw wonderful parties, so I see why she'd want to gain an invite.”

“I'm sure tonight's going to be wonderful, regardless. The twins have their own room, and we're finally going to get some well deserved privacy.” Thomas grinned, and somewhat suggestively, rose an eyebrow.

“It's terrible, but I'm probably looking forward to that more than I am to the actual event.”

The slightly shorter man grinned but before he could reply both of their attentions were shifted to a pair of young children. 

“Dad!”

“Dad!”

A little set of arms were flung around each parent’s waist, and they both glanced, smiling, down at the twins.

“Tiff!” Strand scooped his daughter up and spun her around before placing her back down. Tiffany had always been particularly close with Victor, while Jonathan had clicked with Thomas. That silent arrangement seemed to work pretty well, and neither adult or child was complaining about it.

“How was your day, buddy?” Thomas asked affectionately, his Scottish accent evident as he glanced at the boy.

“Okay.”

Johnny wasn't a big talker, whereas Tiffany barely ever shut up. The little girl grinned at her daddies, “my day was so much fun, I played with the other girls and we came up with a dance routine at lunch using the music on my phone, because I'm the only one with a phone so everyone wants to hang around me.”

“That sounds like fun,” Victor smiled. “Hopefully all that dancing hasn't tired you out too much, there's lots of partying to be done tonight.”

“No, I'm not tired, I'm gonna be awake all night long.”

Thomas turned to his son, “how about you Johnny, are you going to dance with your sister?”

A small smile, “yeah, but only if you dance with me too, daddy.”

X-X-X-X

“Now that was what I've been looking forward to all day,” Madison Clark murmured, slightly out of breath. She rolled over, a large smile on her face, as she examined her partner who was laying beside her on the sofa in her office. He was completely naked aside from his unbuttoned shirt, that was hanging loosely over his shoulders and easily exposing his bare chest and tribal Maori stomach tattoo, as well as a pair of soft grey socks. She, herself, was wearing nothing aside from her heels, which hadn't seemed to have come off despite their rough quickie. 

Travis Manawa had appeared at her office about twenty minutes earlier, and had barely had time to lock the door before she threw him against the wall, lips hungrily travelling over his body, teeth biting into his flesh, as she hurriedly undressed him. Life was good when your spouse worked at the same school as you, she had decided years earlier, after a similar session. 

“What got you all horny?” he joked, a large grin on his face. “I never knew I could possibly have that effect on women.”

“I'm sorry, I'm a woman, and I have urges that need to be fulfilled.” She reached out, fingers extended, and gently stroked his cheek. “You're sexy, babe.”

He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, immediately tasting cigarette smoke and vodka. “How much have you had to drink today?”

He didn't know why he even bothered to ask anymore, she was an alcoholic, and as much as it hurt him, he knew that she loved the bottle more than him. She loved it more than her own goddamn children, if that could be classified as necessary proof.

“None of your fuckin’ business,” she concluded as she stood up and began to tug on her black lace panties. She bent down and scooped up her bra, encasing her large breasts in the black, almost transparent lace cups, before she pulled her black skinny jeans up her legs and buttoned up a thin blouse, leaving ample cleavage exposed. “Come on, get dressed, we have to get going.”

Her best friend in the whole world had recently gotten engaged and both herself, her partner and all their kids (both biological and other) were invited. It had been her that had finally pushed Victor to propose, she'd grown tired of his constant complaining and beating around the bush, and had told him that if he didn't ask Thomas soon, she'd ask him for him. He'd popped the question about a month earlier, the other man had obviously said yes, and Strand had shown up on Maddie’s doorstep the next morning with a bottle of a expensive Scotch and a huge thank you.

“So have you picked up something to give them as a gift?” Travis tugged his jeans on, and buttoned up a checked shirt.

“I grabbed ‘em a bottle of Scotch, not blue label, just a red, but I'm sure Victor ain't gonna be complainin’.” She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his before she pulled away, slung a blouse over her forearm and clasped a cigarette between her red lips. “Let's go, I wanna light this up but the school has this damn no smoking rule.”

The pair hurried out of the school, stopping only briefly to wish Arte Costa, their boss and the principal, a nice weekend.

Madison flicked her lighter, igniting the tip of the cigarette, and inhaled deeply as she lead her partner to their car. She turned slightly, so that she faced him, and she blew a stream of smoke toward him. “Keep up, the kids are probably waitin’ at home.”

Travis smiled. It was terrible that she looked so beautiful surrounded by a thick cloud of smoke. Her dyed blonde hair fell in messy waves down to her shoulders, her clothes clung onto her curvaceous form, and the smile on her face didn't seem to reach her dead, empty eyes. “Alright Angel, I'm coming.”

A swift buzzing sensation coming from Maddie’s jeans snatched her attention away from her partner. She slipped her hand into her pocket and removed her iPhone before she peered at the screen.

\---

Victor Strand: Madison, about when are you planning on arriving at the hotel? If you're there around 4:30-5:00 we have to meet for drinks at the bar.

Madison Clark: FUCK YES! Will be there, Trav & kids & I will arrive at around 4:30. Can't wait to see you & Tom, give him & twins hello hug for me.

Victor Strand: Will do, Tom’s sitting with me and he says hello. 

Madison Clark: I'm sure you're both looking forward to tonite, *eggplant emoji* *eggplant emoji*

Victor Strand: Why is there two eggplants? Last time I checked, Tom only had one.

Madison Clark: Maybe one of them’s supposed to be yours??

Victor Strand: You're an idiot, Madison

Madison Clark: It fuckin’ takes one to know one

\---

“Who was it?” Travis rose an eyebrow curiously.

“Just Victor, he wants to meet me for drinks.”

The English teacher nodded, “let's get home first, I really need to get packing.”

“So do I,” she stroked his cheek. “We’re a terribly disorganised couple, aren't we?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any kudos or reviews!


End file.
